Taking care of business

For the sixth straight season, Mendon’s football team hoisted a district championship trophy.

It seemed business as usual on Saturday, as the top-ranked Hornets beat No. 10 Climax-Scotts 28-6.

“I thought our kids played well defensively and we were more physical than they were,” Mendon coach John Schwartz said. “They have a lot of speed in that backfield, but we were able to keep to our assignments and play well.”

The win for Mendon ensures they will have a rematch with Muskegon Catholic Central this week in the regional finals.

Last season, the Hornets were able to take down the Crusaders in the district finals 28-21.

MCC, like Mendon, is always a tough team. Schwartz said they, like Climax, have a lot of speed.

“They don’t have as much size as we’ve seen them have in the past, but they have kids in the backfield that are quick,” Schwartz noted of MCC. “We’ll certainly have our hands full next week.”

In Saturday’s game, Mendon was able to corral the Panthers speed for the most part.

Climax head coach Kevin Langs said he was proud of the way his team played.

“There were a couple of mistakes we made and we weren’t able to score,” Langs said. “I thought our kids fought hard all the way to the end. We gave ourselves some chances but weren’t able to capitalize on them.”

The Panthers did have four drives end in Mendon territory, but only one of them ended in points

“We didn't care of business inside the red zone,” Langs said. “We had four chances and didn't score.”

Climax-Scotts finished the game with 179 yards of total offense. Nearly all of that came on the ground, with 43 carries for 140 as they run a wing-T style offense.

Mendon uncharacteristically committed nine penalties in the game for 104 yards. One of those penalties proved to be costly as it neglected a 92-yard touchdown run by QB Nick Eberstein.

Schwartz said his team will continue to work on that this week, playing well and not forcing the issue.

The Hornets also turned it over twice, but Schwartz said his team will look to minimize that this week.

“We’ll get that squared away, we’ll eliminate those mistakes this week,” Schwartz said. “We had a lot of big plays called back. We'll look at film and see what's going on.”

Mendon scored on its first possession, which ended in an Eli Klepper 1-yard TD plunge into the end zone. Robert Riley made the extra point and Mendon led 7-0. That would be the only score of the opening quarter.

In the second, Climax missed a field goal that would have chipped into the Mendon lead.

The Hornets got the ball back and fueled by a 40 yard Eberstein run, drove deep into Panther territory. Eberstein would fumble the ball on the 2-yard-line a few plays later, but was able to pick the ball up and find the end zone, eliminating what could have been a bad result. The Riley kick made it 14-0 Mendon.

On the next Panther possession, Klepper forced and recovered a fumble.

Senior tailback Tyler Harris would find his way into the end zone on a 12 yard TD run as Mendon pushed their lead to 21-0 overall.

“This was the first he’s been able to run all week, he sprained his ankle early this week in practice,” Schwartz said of his running back. “Mitch Ulrich (Mendon assistant) taped it up as soon as it happened and kept the swelling down. I’m surprised that he played.”

Harris said there was no way he was missing the game, but that he wasn’t sure how many plays he’d see on the field. He finished with 30 carries for 250 yards.

“I didn’t think I’d get that many carries,” Harris said. “Coaches told me I’d play ‘X’ amount of plays and I thought 10-11 carries would be the most. But I guess I was able to show them it wasn’t hurting me that much.”

Harris, who is a very shifty back that moves laterally causing nearly everyone to miss-tackle him, thought he might have to change up his style because of the ankle.

“I thought I was going to have to run straight and try and run people over,” Harris said with a smile. “That’s not exactly my specialty. But I thought our offensive line blocked very well.”

Up 21-0, Mendon took a comfortable lead into the locker room. In the second half, Mendon focused on continuing to run the ball.

“We’ve come a long way this season and we like to be aggressive up front,” senior lineman Kevin Kuhlman said. “You have to be aggressive on the front line. No one likes to get hit, so if we fire out on every play, it gives us an advantage. Plus we have great backs that get the ball downfield.”

Mendon finished with 341 yards rushing on the day.

Midway through the third quarter, the Hornets went up 28-0.

Harris found his way into the end zone on a 6 yard run and a Riley extra point put the Hornets in business.

Climax would finally get on the board late in the third quarter, a 15-yard touchdown pass from Zach Nabozny to Kirk Gibson.

In the fourth quarter Climax had the ball several times, but was unable to score again.

“We’ve made a lot of movements and adjustments throughout the year on defense,” Kuhlman said. “I thought we did well by allowing our backers to come up and make plays.”

Outside of Harris, Eberstein had 100 yards on 11 carries.

Gibson finished with 111 yards on 14 carries for Climax, who ends the season with a 10-1 record.

Mendon got 12 tackles from Klepper, including one sack and one tackle for loss.

Danny Cleveland and Derek Zagon both had 11 stops while Kuhlman, Andy Brueck and Kyle Weswell all had eight tackles.